Dili's dance with the former devil it knows

ONLY nine years ago Indonesian forces were pillaging East Timor,
beating, murdering and systematically destroying every major
building erected since 1975, before withdrawing and leaving up to
200,000 casualties of a 25-year occupation.

It seemed inconceivable they could ever return to assist the
fledgling nation, but this is what was being proposed in Jakarta
this week after Monday's attacks on President Jose Ramos Horta and
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

While coy about the prospect of dispatching troops, Dino Patti
Djalal, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's international adviser,
said Indonesia stood ready to help.

And with Ramos Horta on life support in Royal Darwin Hospital,
the editor of the prestigious Globe magazine, Yanto
Soegiarto, was more direct. "Give the TNI (Indonesian army) a
chance to restore security and stability in Timor, and the
situation will improve," said Soegiarto, who is close to the
military. "The Timorese will see Indonesian troops more as their
new brothers compared to the Western-style, heavily armed white
soldiers who always try to look superior."

Amid the concern for Ramos Horta's and East Timor's survival,
there were also other swipes at Australia. Indonesia's Foreign
Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, pointed out that rebel soldiers had been
able to attack despite the presence of Australian troops.

The crisis has exposed lingering resentment at Australian
support for Timor's independence, a humiliation that rocked
Indonesia's pride and international reputation when Timor
overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1999. Indonesia was blamed
for the chaos then, said Djalal, but now Australia was finding the
situation on the ground was "much more complex" and it "struck a
chord".

"The basic reaction of the Government, officials and politicians
when they heard of the rebellions, riots and shootings is we hope
now that the world will understand that East Timor was always a
very difficult society to manage," he said.

The head of Australia's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre,
Hugh White, is all too familiar with the challenges of Timor. He
played a key role in the response to the 1999 independence crisis,
as a deputy secretary of the Defence Department.

White thinks there is "no serious prospect of a sustained TNI
role", but said Australians were naive to believe the Timorese
would favour them ahead of Indonesia. Timor wanted to balance the
influence of its two largest neighbours, White said. "Unless they
can get on well with Indonesia they believe they will be subject to
Australia's whims. The reason the relationship has rebounded
surprising well is East Timor's leadership has recognised that
without a decent working relationship with Indonesia they are
hardly viable as a state.

"No small country likes to feel so heavily dependent on a big
neighbour, and the worse relations with Indonesia are the more
reliant they are on Australia."

Indonesia wanted to move on from the "deeply scarring" events of
1999, he said. Easing the process was the fact that "Australia has
become a kind of lightning rod for the resentment felt over
1999".

And while Australia's fractious ties with Indonesia have
improved apace  last week a new security treaty came into
force, replacing the one torn up after East Timor's independence
vote  progress between Dili and Jakarta has been positively
supersonic.

Gusmao has been a welcomed guest of Yudhoyono  who was
stunned to receive a rapturous reception from crowds lining the
streets when he visited Dili in 2005. There he laid a wreath at the
Santa Cruz cemetery, where Indonesian troops massacred hundreds of
unarmed demonstrators in 1991.

As the once-reviled dictator Suharto lay dying last month, both
Gusmao and Ramos Horta pleaded for forgiveness towards the man who
had invaded their country and brutally suppressed their
independence movement during his years in power.

Djalal, who was the spokesman for the Indonesian taskforce
monitoring the 1999 independence referendum, this week said
Yudhoyono had come to power wanting to transform relations with
Timor. "He knew both countries had to open a new chapter For
so many years East Timor has been a thorn in the development of our
national identity. As Indonesia transformed, the political elite
realised part of that transformation must include how we treat East
Timor, domestically and internationally.

"There is no alternative but for East Timor to be built into a
stable democracy."

Despite joint interests in preventing East Timor's collapse, and
Indonesian support for Australia's security role, White said there
was an "edge" to comments about the latest crisis. There is a
"genuine unease on the part of Indonesia that Australia has a large
military presence on its doorstep," he said.

Djalal said Indonesia was comfortable with the expanded
deployment, which he described as "commensurate with the problems,
with the security needs". Then he added: "Timor is on our doorstep
 whatever security measures Australia intends to undertake we
wish to be consulted on."

White believes mistrust of Australia's interest in Timor springs
from a misconception that it favoured independence before the 1999
vote. "We believed East Timor as an independent country couldn't
make a go of it," he said. "None of us involved in the
decision-making then would be surprised about what has happened
today."

While Indonesia and Timor were prepared to move on, said White,
"the complexity of Australia's position is part of the future. "We
have 1000 troops in East Timor and no one has any model as to how
we are going to get them out."

1202760593372-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/dilis-dance-with-the-former-devil-it-knows/2008/02/15/1202760593372.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2008-02-16Dili's dance with the former devil it knowsMark ForbesInDepth